The left-wing French newspaper, Libération, recently called the Greek Minister of Finances, Yanis Veroufakis, the pop-star of the left. For me that is hardly a term of approbation, rather the reverse, but the newspaper no doubt thought otherwise. It printed a picture of him, just off his powerful motor cycle, dressed in a leather jacket, T-short and jeans, carrying his … [Read on]
Needing the services of a certain shop last week, I found myself waiting in it for three quarters of an hour. The staff were perfectly pleasant and it was not their fault that I had to wait; but what was nearly intolerable to me (nearly intolerable, because in the end I did tolerate it for the sake of the service … [Read on]
If you want to develop or to refresh a hatred of humanity there is no better way, at least in England, that to go litter-picking in an English rural lane. Recently my wife and I have been so horrified by the increase in littering in the beautiful countryside not far from us that we have decided to do a little … [Read on]
The complete contempt of the upper echelons of the BBC for the intelligence of the British public could not be better illustrated than by its website. My experience of those working at the lower levels of the organisation is of intelligent, dedicated and often talented people frustrated in their wish to do a good job by the mandate from the … [Read on]
There is only one question to be asked at the next election. Who is going to pay at least a fraction of Britain’s £1.4 trillion pound public debt? It is four times larger than it was in 1998 and rising vertically. Traditionally state debt is serviced by taxes or further borrowing. Yet while more people are being employed the computer … [Read on]
Attending court recently, it suddenly occurred to me just how discriminatory our society is. All the lawyers – the judge, the prosecution and defence barristers – were highly intelligent; the defendant was of only average intelligence, or even below. This is a situation repeated scores of times, day after day, up and down the country. It is surely time to … [Read on]
Righteous indignation is one of the most delightful of emotions and that is why I buy the Guardian and Observer newspapers: they guarantee to stimulate me to that delightful frame of mind. This morning, for example, it was the Observer’s turn to reduce me to impotent rage. It contained a long article about ‘gender inequality’ in politics and society, dull … [Read on]
Anyone who writes risks error and should be grateful to editors who point out his errors to him, for it is preferable to be corrected before rather than after publication. American editors are better in this respect than British, perhaps because they are assisted by those lowly creatures unknown in Britain called fact-checkers. They can be irritating or absurd at … [Read on]
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